Does anyone have a solution for arg list too long error.
I have got this from the web but I fail to make any sense out of it
Thanks
enc

Check out the xargs command. Can you post the command that is failing?

I have a dirctory(in fact many directories) for which I have to grep
a certain string -In my case a 10 digit number starting with 011
code:
For directories having a lot many files it says
/usr/bin/grep Arg list too long

Would find command help me?
find . -name * -exec egrep '^011......$' /dev/null {} \;

Thanks
enc

I think the find syntax as you have it will have the same problem. If you use xargs like this you may have some luck. I am not anywhere I can test it right now to confirm for you but this syntax may work:

find ./ -print | xargs grep '^011.......$' *| cut -f1 -d :

If you run this from your top level directory where you were running your script, you should get the results you want.

Gives the output while searching in a single directory:
xargs: a single arg was greater than max argsize of 2048 characters

Any Ideas??
enc

Drop the "*" from the grep,

find ./ -print | xargs grep -l '^011.......$'

You also won't need the cut, use -l (ell) to grep to print the matching filenames.

Cheers
ZB

Thanks jazzybob you saved my day!!
But I was wondering why

find ./ -print | xargs grep '^011.......$' *| cut -f1 -d :

did not work in the first place.

Chill
enc